Some People With Jokes: Vicars were the punchline

Vicars got their five minutes of fame in Some People With Jokes (Picture: BBC)

With comedians opining on ethical issues now a virtual fixture on Question Time, why shouldn’t the clergy reverse the professional land-grab and try their hand at stand-up? Perhaps that was the thinking behind the first episode of Some People With Jokes (BBC4) but the procession of vicars emphatically demonstrated that they really shouldn’t give up the day job. The women in dog-collars came out of it rather better, for the most part endearingly apologetic as they shared sweetly silly puns you might hear in a playground (a piece of toast resembling the face of Jesus leads to ‘I can’t believe it’s not Buddha’ – take a bow, Rev Cindy Kent of Whetstone). But the boys in black were worryingly sex-obsessed and, with their slick patter, seemed to be under the illusion that only the pulpit had robbed the stand-up stage of their talent. You hope – and pray – this isn’t what their congregants have to suffer every Sunday. Pure purgatory.